Sunday Akere served during the first tenure of ex-governor of Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola, as Commissioner for Information and Strategy. Akere, who is the current Special Adviser on Political Affairs to Governor Gboyega Oyetola, in this interview with BOLA BAMIGBOLA, appeals to the aggrieved All Progressives Congress members to embrace peace
Are you comfortable with the fact that the APC is sharply divided less than seven months to the state governorship poll?
We are never scared. We are never bothered. Our position is that what the other caucus, which calls itself TOP (The Osun Progressives) is doing, is just to distract the governor.
In Osun today, the 95 per cent of the people that are APC members are with the governor. The constitution of the party is clear. Whoever is governor is the leader of the party in the state. Aregbesola was the governor for eight years and he was revered as the leader of the party and Oyetola is the governor today, so he is the leader of the party. Likewise, Gboyega Famodun is the chairman of the party.
We have almost all the major former political office holders in Osun with the governor. So, what else do you want? They (TOP members) are only out to cause distractions and they won’t have their way in the party. Secondly, the best thing for them now is to allow reasons to prevail and come back like the prodigal son to the mainstream of the APC in Osun.
But those in the other faction of the APC have accused people in your faction of alienating them. If you ask them to return, will the alienation end?
We have never alienated anyone. We are all part of the same political family. We are friends and brothers. They are the ones that alienated themselves in their utterances, in the way they do things. It is the fear of the unknown which they have created for themselves that is pushing them around.
Even if there is reconciliation now, how are they going to fit in with the vicious and terrible comments they have passed on the governor and the party? The governor is a father of all, whose arms are opened. If they, the TOP members, stretch their arms, the governor is ready to carry them along and we are ready to welcome them back if genuinely they are ready for reconciliation.
Despite your claim, some bigwigs in the other faction were noticeably not part of the processes leading to the congress. For instance, in a community in Oriade, where an ex-commissioner hails from, he claimed he was never consulted before the party selected members of the congress committee. What is your take?
It is just unfortunate when that congress committee you mentioned was sitting, we had several meetings here inside the banquet hall (of the Government House). That key member of TOP attended. He is one of the leaders from the Oriade Local Government Area. They know what they are doing, and they are deliberately acting against the general good of the party. We carried everybody along. The issues were cleared when the congress committee was being formed. The chairman of the party in each federal constituency chaired the congress committee in the federal constituency. If you are a member of the National Assembly, if you are a member of state assembly, if you are a cabinet member, if you are a member of the old executive of the party and selected leaders, you are all free to be members. You can force a horse to the stream, but you cannot force it to drink water. They deliberately refused to come around to join us in ensuring the success of the congress because they had a premeditated plan thinking that probably if they were able to hijack the party, they would be in control.
The debate over debt incurred during Aregbesola administration, where you served as a commissioner has been on for a long time. Going by what ex-Finance Commissioner, Wale Bolorunduro, said, the current governor, who served then as Chief of Staff knew about all the borrowing. As a member of the cabinet, how much do you know about the debt?
We were all part of the cabinet then. Yes, there was an instruction that our files should pass through the Chief of Staff table before getting to the governor. Those people who were making these comments knew how they were clearing their files. They were not taking the files to the Chief of Staff. We were all there together. In every regime, no matter how big the Chief of Staff is, the governor is still the boss and has all authority. There is no gain-saying about that. Shouting around that the Chief of Staff is more powerful than the governor is a big lie coming from the devil. There are some things people like us don’t want to talk about because of the implication for the party.
Were the facilities taken not deliberated upon by the state Executive Council?
I could remember issues around two of the debt facilities that were brought to us for deliberation at the state executive council and the members put their signatures. The first one was N30bn bond that the government took and N11.4bn SUKUK loan. Add the two, you will get N41.4bn. If they are now telling us that the current debt portfolio is almost N200bn, who took the money?
Those that mentioned the figure knew how they did it. The majority of the things that happened then nobody knew until this government came on board. But we got no choice because it was our party that took those decisions while in government, whether they managed them well or not.
As Commissioner for Information in the administration that borrowed the money, what are other facilities that the administration accessed that were not known to the people outside the administration? Also, to what extent did the then Chief of Staff participate in the process of getting the facilities, bearing in mind his position as the chairman, Osun Debt Management Board?
Those that borrowed the money are those that said somebody (then Chief of Staff) was on the board. Somebody was in charge of State Finance then. The state cannot borrow money without the knowledge of the commissioner of finance. I was not part of the process leading to the borrowing because I was not the finance commissioner. I was the Commissioner for Information and my own duty was to talk about government projects and achievements and not to talk about how money is borrowed or expended.
There were insinuations that many cabinet members during Aregbesola administration did have misunderstandings with the then Chief of Staff, who is now the governor because of the enormous powers he had. Was that the case?
When I was serving as a commissioner in the first tenure of Aregbesola, I was the closest out of all the cabinet members to the current governor then as a Chief of staff and I don’t think anybody will say the issue they are carrying over then is the reason they are fighting the man now. Whatever grievances they have now are personal. They will tell you the governor did not give them N10m that was promised to each of them by the last administration or an official car
So these and some other things are what the issues are. The main grouse they have is the reformation that they think the governor did. During the governorship debate in 2018, I can vividly remember that Oyetola was asked, “If there are policies that your predecessor initiated that you think is not good. Will you review them?” He promised he would review them. And during the last edition of ‘Ogbeni till daybreak,’ he (Aregbesola) said if there were policies of his administration that the people felt the governor should look into, he was free to do that. When the school review policy was to be done, and the chairman of the panel Prof Olu Aina was nominated by Governor Oyetola; Olu Aina said he would not oblige the review panel, unless he got approval from ex-governor Aregbesola then. Olu Aina had to travel to Abuja to sample Ogbeni’s opinion on the assignment given to him. Ogbeni asked him to mention names of the members of the panel and after mentioning four to five names of professors behind the review after, Aregbesola gave him the go-ahead. After concluding the assignment and before the report was handed over to the governor, they briefed Aregbesola. So, those attacking Oyetola because of reversal of some policies are just being petty. They should allow the governor to concentrate on the assignment given to him by the state and deliver dividends of democracy.
Is it true Oyetola told some of you working with him to be attacking Aregbesola on the social media?
The issue of attack is a tit-for-tat thing, an unpleasant comment from one side generates unpleasant comment from the other side. Oyetola does not instruct anybody or his follower to launch any attack because we are one big family.
How comfortable is Oyetola going into a governorship election with a divided party?
Very comfortable, when God is with you, your mind will be at peace. We never knew we could get far. Their intention when we wanted to start congress was that they were going to railroad us and hijack the party.
The so-called bigwigs cannot shake or disrupt the party because they have no teeming supporters so they cannot influence the process. Even the opposition party is not settled. The APC is far better than the PDP. So we are not bothered. We have done so well to achieve a lot as a government and we believe that with God on our side, we are going to be returned elected by the people. We are not bothered about what opposition party is doing or saying. We still keep the door clearly opened for anyone who wants to come. We want them to come. We are not driving them away. They should come and support the governor on the delivery of the dividends of democracy.
As Special Adviser on Political Affairs to the governor, are you driving the reconciliation process to bring back the aggrieved party members?
Yes, we are driving that process. We set up a reconciliation committee in the state, but they said they would not appear before the state committee that they were only waiting for Abuja. Reconciliation Committee. The Abuja committee came, yet they were not contented, rather, they were adamant and they went to court. The court cannot adjudicate the internal affairs of the party. That is clear. They are only wasting their time.
What is your message to the aggrieved APC members?
My message to them is that they should see reason and realise that if two sons of the same mother fight dirty, it is the stranger that inherits their property. The sun is still sufficient enough up there to dry clothes. They should come around and join hands with the governor and let progressive governance continue to reign in Osun.
(Punch)
